Why More Platforms Are Supporting Cryptocurrency Payments For Creators

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Twitter added several new payment options this week for its tipping feature, allowing creators to receive tips from their fans. Among the new options is the ability for creators to receive Ethereum tips.

This move is the latest effort from several platforms that are expanding to crypto payments for creators. In the last few months, platforms like Lumanu, IZEA, and BBTV, have rolled out features to give creators the option to be paid in cryptocurrencies. Their approaches have varied, ranging from paying creators in a combination of crypto and fiat currency, like USD, to paying creators entirely in crypto.

There are still a lot of questions surrounding crypto, but one thing is for sure: it is playing a significant role in the creator economy. Most creators' interactions with crypto come from investing in it or through crypto-powered experiences, like non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and creator coins.

In the coming years, I anticipate that creators' interactions with crypto will increasingly come from accepting crypto as payment for their own digital and physical products, getting tips from fans, and being compensated for branded content campaigns.

This trend will accelerate for two main reasons: a growing number of platforms will support payments, thereby making it easier for creators to actually accept it, and creators’ interest in diversifying their revenue streams to maximize their business will continue to grow.

Crypto support will be used by social media platforms and creator economy companies to entice creators and advertisers to their respective destinations. In the social media platform landscape, Instagram, YouTube, and others will also add functionality to continue the feature wars. Influencer marketing platforms will use cryptocurrency payments to attract advertisers who need flexibility in how they compensate creators, while creator monetization platforms will offer creators as many means as possible to receive funds.

When creators diversify their revenue streams, they usually do so by monetizing their work through different models, such as branded content, subscription services, and digital and physical products. Adding to this, creators will look at crypto and other forms of digital currencies as a way to diversify their revenue stream even if they are volatile. Crypto payments have other advantages for creators, such as faster and easier transactions. This will allow creators to get paid almost immediately rather than having to wait for a transaction to be processed.

Crypto's pros and cons will drive forward-thinking creators who aren't risk-averse to adopt early, while those who depend on money from their efforts as a creator to pay their bills will hesitate. As crypto becomes more mainstream, this will change. As made evident by Coinbase’s buzzworthy Super Bowl commercial and major banks recently investing in crypto, digital currencies have a place in today’s monetary system.

So what does this mean for marketers? Well, an opportunity exists for marketers to experiment with crypto as payment for creators and gain an early-mover advantage.

Marketers could test the waters by surveying their network of creators to see if they have any interest in receiving payment in digital currencies. If so, they can actually run campaigns where a portion or full payment is in some form of crypto. The insights gained from these will be valuable when crypto payments are more common, especially in the creator world.